we're all broken together
by hannabanana13
Summary: Two years of hell and it's all over. The team stopped looking after the first year. The search warrants came back with no results, the suspect list has shrunk until the paper lies empty, no names left to investigate. Sam and Callen have moved on, Deeks is assigned a new partner. He hates her. Because she's not Kensi. WARNING: can be read as having a major character death.


**Kensi/Deeks. First NCIS LA story, advice is welcome. One-shot.**

**Warning: can be read as having major character death. Feel free to assume she doesn't die. I left it open-ended.**

**Disclaimer: NCIS LA is not mine.**

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Two years of hell and it's all over.

The team stopped looking after the first year. The search warrants came back with no results, the suspect list has shrunk until the paper lies empty, no names left to investigate. Sam and Callen have moved on, Deeks is assigned a new partner. He hates her. Because she's not Kensi.

It's an anonymous tip that saves her. Called in from a pay phone near a small pizza shop. A warehouse. A screaming girl. Deeks brings three guns and all he can think on the drive there is the last thing he said to her, on that night he can't bring himself to regret-the night before she was taken.

Three kidnappers, three bullets each. Callen, Deeks and Sam. Kensi looked different—darker—tangled brown hair and clouded eyes. A small girl, about two, with dark hair and dark brown eyes—a miniature Kensi—was hidden part way behind her, clutching her pant leg in a tiny fist.

"Kensi!" Deeks yelled from behind Sam. The thick Navy SEAL held Deeks' arms in his huge hands, preventing him from moving even the slightest towards her, while Hetty's gentle hands lifted her carefully from the floor, where she lay crumpled.

"Mr. Deeks." Hetty spoke harshly from behind Deeks, laying a small hand on his shoulder. "How about we transport Miss Blye and her daughter out of this warehouse and to a safe house, hmm?"

Deeks swiveled to face her, but despite her calm tone, Hetty's face held the same amount of fear that his did. He relaxed in Sam's grip, until the larger man loosened his grasp on Sam's arm and backed up a step.

Deeks fought his need to move beside him partner and stayed in place as Hetty reached gently for Kensi's arm and led her gently past the men. Kensi didn't appear to focus on any of the men she passed, her eyes swung around to gaze at all of them, before dropping to the floor and shuffling onward. Her empty stare scared Deeks.

Her daughter followed like a little lost lamb, in a tattered pink t-shirt, she ran behind her mother to grasp the ripped fabric of her jeans once more. Deeks wondered what her name was.

"Mr. Deeks." Hetty's voice cut through the fog in his head, and had him moving forward before she spoke again. "With me."

Deeks stepped into place beside his partner, resisted touching her, and knelt down to scoop up her daughter into his arms.

"Deeks." Hetty called him from the bedroom of the safe-house off 6th Street. "Call Miss Jones, and tell her to go shopping."

"For what?" Deeks asked, already dialing the familiar number.

"Clothes, Mr. Deeks." Hetty gestures to the rags that Kensi is clothed in. "And please get that little girl something small to eat. Yogurt or fruit perhaps."

Deeks stared at Kensi's daughter, who was curled up on the couch watching him with curious eyes. She looked very intelligent, those deep brown eyes tracking his every move. Deeks had yet to hear her speak.

"Do you want some yogurt?" He asked her, as he waited for Nell to pick up the phone. He spoke quickly to her once she answered, voicing Hetty's request, hating how hollow his voice was. He hung up, realizing suddenly he had no idea how to talk to this little girl.

But she obviously understood, she nodded at him and continued to watch him curiously.

Deeks yanked open the fridge, recoiling by the empty shelves. He realized there was nothing edible in this kitchen. He reached for the phone again, and after speaking quickly to Nell again, he asked her to pick up food.

While they waited for food, Deeks decided it would be a good idea to wash the two year old, as he surveyed her gaunt body—covered in dust and grime, swathed in the large pink shirt.

"Why don't we go get cleaned up?"

"With mommy?" The little girl asked him quietly, making that the first time he had heard her speak. She had a quiet voice—calm, despite the circumstances.

"Your Mommy is in the other room getting cleaned up. I want to make you look pretty too."

The girl looked at him for a long moment, as if measuring his sincerity, before she nodded, and when Deeks began to lead her to the bathroom, he was surprised to note that the little girl fell in step behind him and slid her tiny hand into his.

Deeks had just clumsily lowered the little girl into the bathtub when a loud crash echoed through the hallway. Noticing that the little girl's eyes were laced with fear, he laid a soothing hand on her arm, and called down the hall. "Everything all right?"

Silence.

Deeks rose slowly and told the girl to stay, and walked slowly into the bedroom knocking slowly in case Kensi wasn't clothed. But the sight made his blood run cold.

Kensi lay on the bed, in a pool of blood, knife protruding from her chest, eyes wide and staring. They caught his immediately. Hetty lay on the floor, he paused in his move towards his partner to see her chest rising and falling.

"Deeks…" Kensi gasped.

He fell to her side, holding her hand, already dialing the emergency code, speaking rapidly into the phone. "It's okay, Kens. It's gonna be fine. It—"

She mumbled something too low for him to hear.

"What? _Kensi_. Who did this? Where is he?" Deeks nearly shouted, moving his hands to cover the wound on her chest, as if this will stop the bleeding.

"Take care of her." Kensi coughed loudly, spitting blood. "I'm sorry."

"You'll be fine. You…"

"Promise?" She whispered.

"I promise to take care of her. But—"

Kensi's chest heaved as her lungs searched for air. "She's yours."

_"What?"_

"She is yours. Two years ago, that night before-" Kensi coughed, and blood bubbled from the corner of her mouth.

"I love you." Deeks blurted out, not knowing what else to say.

Kensi smiled briefly and her eyes began to close, sliding closed, her grip loosened in Deeks' hand and he panicked, tears spilling from his eyes, he squeezed her hand frantically.

"Kensi. What's her name?"

"_Sarah_."

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**Review? Thanks for reading. I'm a new writer and advice is always welcome. **


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